I walked this morning thinking about shadows. The green grass was muscular and the light was striking, although slightly muted by the Canadian wildfires. I and our dog, Luna, moved through the field, the path and along the road parting the grass and the air. We noted the shifts of shadow from the looseness of the knee-high grass to the clarity of mowed trail to the sharpness of the shadows on the paved road. Luna and I each have our reasons for moving and walking even if it only involves chasing our own shadows.

Keeping Things Whole

In a field
I am the absence
of field.
This is
always the case.
Wherever I am
I am what is missing.

When I walk
I part the air
and always
the air moves in   
to fill the spaces
where my body’s been.

We all have reasons
for moving.
I move
to keep things whole.

–Mark Strand, Keeping Things Whole from Selected Poems, published by Alfred A. Knopf, © 1979, 1980 by Mark Strand